Steve Coast

Steve Coast
Coast in 2009
Born
Stephen Coast[1]

(1980-12-20) 20 December 1980 (age 44)
Known forfounder of OpenStreetMap
WebsiteUser page in OSM

Stephen Coast (born 20 December 1980) is a British entrepreneur and the founder of the OpenStreetMap community-based world mapping project and CloudMade, a geography-related company.

Early life

Coast grew up in Walderslade and London, United Kingdom.

Career

Coast speaking at State of the Map US 2012

Coast interned at Wolfram Research before studying computing science at University College London (UCL).[2]

In July 2004, he founded the OpenStreetMap project (OSM).[3]

Coast set up Z.X.V. Ltd. with Nick Black, Tom Carden and Ben Gimpert as a technology consultancy in 2005. In 2008 this became CloudMade after investment by Nikolaj Nyholm and Sunstone Capital (company's website claims it was established in 2007[4]).[5] He resigned from CloudMade in October 2010,[6] although he remained a shareholder.[citation needed]

On 23 November 2010, Coast announced that he had accepted a position as Principal Architect at Microsoft's Bing Mobile.[7]

On 3 September 2013, Coast wrote on his blog that he had started to work for TeleNav, taking care of OSM development for the company's Scout navigator.[8]

In November 2015, Coast published "The Book of OSM". The book contains 15 interviews conducted by Coast with various users who had participated in the project since its beginning.[9]

In January 2016, he stepped down from full-time work at TeleNav[10] and became a board advisor for Navmii.[11] In March 2016 he started working as Chief Evangelist for What3words.[12][13] In May 2016 he became an advisor for MapJam.[14] In October 2017, he joined DigitalGlobe.[15]

In the summer of 2021 he was appointed Vice President of Community at TomTom.[16]

In July 2022, it was announced that Coast had joined Grab as Head of Engineering, Geo Innovation.[17]

Personal life

In 2008, Coast moved to the United States, first to San Francisco. In 2009 he moved to Colorado with his wife Hurricane (born McEwen). In November 2010 Coast wrote that he would be moving to Seattle, Washington.[18] He moved back to Colorado in 2013.

References

  1. ^ OpenStreetMap Foundation filing to Companies House (UK) on 17 September 2008.
  2. ^ Gorman, Sean (30 June 2008). "Will the Real Steve Coast Please Stand Up?". FortiusOne. Archived from the original on 4 July 2008. Retrieved 30 October 2009.
  3. ^ Mathieson, S. A. (11 May 2006). "A sidestep in the right direction". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 September 2009.
  4. ^ "About CloudMade". CloudMade. Archived from the original on 2 September 2011. Retrieved 2 September 2011.
  5. ^ "Steve Coast - profile". CloudMade. Archived from the original on 2 August 2008. Retrieved 28 February 2010.
  6. ^ "I've resigned from CloudMade - SteveC". Blog.stevecoast.com. 5 October 2010. Archived from the original on 10 December 2010. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  7. ^ "I'm working at Microsoft and we're donating imagery to OpenStreetMap!". Steve Coast. Archived from the original on 25 November 2010. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
  8. ^ "Mapping My Next Adventure". Steve Coast. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  9. ^ "The Book of OSM".
  10. ^ Coast, Steve (6 January 2016). "New Year, New Roles". Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  11. ^ "Steve Coast joins Navmii as a Board Advisor". Team Navmii. 25 January 2016. Archived from the original on 29 January 2016. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  12. ^ "what3words scoops up founder of OpenStreetMap to capitalize on North American growth". 24 March 2016. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
  13. ^ Coast, Steve (25 March 2016). "Why I like what3words". Steve Coast. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
  14. ^ "OpenStreetMap Founder Steve Coast Joins MapJam As Advisor". 24 May 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  15. ^ "A Digital Globe". Steve Coast. 20 October 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  16. ^ "Happy birthday, OpenStreetMap!". TomTom Newsroom. 9 August 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  17. ^ "Discovering new models of mapping with Steve Coast". 27 July 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  18. ^ "I'm working at Microsoft and we're donating imagery to OpenStreetMap! - SteveC". Blog.stevecoast.com. 23 November 2010. Archived from the original on 25 November 2010. Retrieved 4 December 2010.